ETHIOPIA STOPS AID IN REBEL AREAS

Ethiopia's Marxist government has stopped sending food to starving people in two war-torn northern provinces but rebels have mounted their own relief effort, a United Nations official said Tuesday.

Ethiopia has told the United Nations it can no longer guarantee distribution of emergency food in Tigre and Eritrea provinces.

"It seems that the people of Tigre and Eritrea are simply not receiving any help at all from the Ethiopian government and they are starving," said Joel Boutroue, spokesman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. "That is pretty serious when you consider how much aid the world is sending to that country right now."

Boutroue said convoys of food trucks are regularly sent into Ethiopia from Sudan by the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front, which has been fighting for independence for more than 20 years, and the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front, which is also seeking regional autonomy.